Anyone who doubts that the Republican Party can attract black voters needs only look south to Louisiana.

At a conference held in Baton Rouge at the end of May, called @Large and aimed to attract black conservatives, black Democrat Elbert Guillary, a member of the state legislature, announced that he was switching party and becoming a Republican.

Less than two weeks later, just up the road in Central City, Louisiana, black Democrat city councilman Ralph Washington  who attended this same @Large conference, made the same announcement  hes becoming a Republican.

Its really not such a mystery. The mystery is why this is not happening more often.

Im asked all the time why, when it is so clear that blacks are damaged by the left wing political agenda, black voters so uniformly and consistently support candidates  Democrats  who advance this agenda.

My answer is that Republicans need to start acting more like the businesspeople they claim to be.

Any businessman convinced that his product is the best doesn't blame customers for not buying it. He doubles down on his efforts to understand these potential customers better and how to sell to them.

There needs to be more appreciation of the differences in the black population.

A Gallup poll done in 2011 showed that whereas 39 percent of whites say they are very religious, 53 percent of blacks do. A large percentage of very religious blacks are conservative and very different from blacks on the left who identify with the NAACP.

The @Large conference, where I was a speaker, was hosted by pastor C.L. Bryant, who tells his own story about leaving the left-wing black establishment in his new film Runaway Slave.

Bryant was president of the NAACP chapter in Garland, Texas, but his relationship with the NAACP soured when he refused to speak at a Planned Parenthood pro-abortion event.

His eyes began to open and see that his traditional Christian values  protecting the unborn and promoting the traditional family, individual freedom, and dignity  were out of whack with the political agenda blacks were automatically signing onto.

Elbert Guillary is now the first black Republican in the Louisiana state legislature since reconstruction.

Listen to him to understand why a conservative black leaves the Democratic Party.

He called the Democrats the party of disappointment and expressed disillusionment with Democratic policies on abortion, gun control, education, and immigration.

Democrats have moved away from the traditional values of most Americans, he said. Their policies have encouraged high teen birth rates, high high school drop-out rates, high incarceration rates, and very high unemployment rates.

Or listen to now-Republican councilman Washington:

 the value system I was raised up with, it really doesnt side with the Democrats...Some of the things I see happening today, with the entitlement programs, we have to change. We cant continue doing the things we are doing and survive.

Everyone understands that black American history is unique and complicated.

But wallowing in the past is never an answer to anyones personal challenges.

The challenge is clarifying right from wrong and acting accordingly moving forward.

It has always seemed pretty clear to me that traditional values and personal freedom and responsibility must be the agenda moving forward for every American of every background.

Black Americans, like every American, need less taxes taken out of their paychecks, need to be able to choose where to send their children to school, need to be able to pick freely a health care plan that suits their needs, and need to save for retirement instead of paying payroll taxes.

You cant sum it up any better than what Elbert Guillary and Ralph Washington have said. There are many, many Guillarys and Washingtons out there in black America. We need more efforts like the @Large conference to reach them

More and more I see very smart and courageous black leaders emerging to carry forth the principles put in place by our Founding Fathers, supported by a belief in God. They know that socialism and communism only bring poverty and suffering to a nation and what they desire is the freedom to pursue the American dream, so that their families can enjoy the peace and prosperity that God intended.

I hate to sound cynical but a whole lot of these line crossers haven’t “seen the light”, they just know they’ll never be in the majority as a Democrat in a deep southern state. It has a lot more to do with committee assignments than morality and they bring their liberal views with them.

A Russian economist predicted the break up of this country. He said, basically that it would split into three parts. The Southeast, Southwest, and Central states all the way to Canada would become one. The west and east coasts would then be on their own.

Unless that happens soon, it won’t matter how many democrats change over to Republicans, especially in Louisiana. They have Landrieu and she’ll vote the party line no matter what. And pretty soon, like the rest of the country, republicans and conservatives will be a dying breed.

The GOP stepped closer to being the second party of disappointment last November. We need new members that will make a difference. I hope these folks will help shine a light into the dark corners of the system.

Possibly they will promote a presidential candidate that will actually have a chance to win.

The GOP talks a lot about outreach but do they do it? The way you win people over is you spend time on their turf in their churches in their communities. The latest bs about immigration doesn’t help win Hispanic votes. Hell the primary beneficiaries cant even vote yet some how Hispanics are going to have an ahh-ha moment and start voting GOP because they suddenly perceive being Republican as not racist. The GOP needs to bring in some fresh marketing from the retail world. People who specialize in branding/selling that aren’t political insiders. Inside most of the time what they spend money on is crap.

Also they totally reject promotion of issues like marriage that resonate with the very religious blacks and Hispanics who are the most natural Democrat voters to peal off. If you go to marriage marches they are some of the most diverse gatherings I’ve ever seen in conservative politics but of course that doesn’t matter.

31
posted on 06/17/2013 6:47:40 AM PDT
by Maelstorm
(This country wasn't founded with the battle cry "Give me liberty or give me a govt check!")

that was a nasty thing to say about someone that wised up to the democrats plantation and left. Your attitude would attract no one to conservativism and gives republicans a bad name....you must be a liberal mole....

In general, I’m somewhat leery of black Republican converts. I’m not suggesting that they are intentional saboteurs, but I am wondering how much of their personal, traditionally-liberal “black experience” will bleed into their lives as Republicans. If this happens, it will further dilute what little staunch conservatism remains in the Stupid Party.

I want to see Star Parker do a breathless story about two NRA gun owners who become Democrats... and a list of reasons why democrats should spend time and money going after the ‘NRA gun owner’ vote - rather than spending money on expanding their base...

Susan Colins, is and has always been a RINO. All you have to do is go to Senate.gov and do a search how she voted and you will find that she voted mostly with the rats, except in 2012 when she ran for reelection. John McCain and Lindsey vote mostly with the other Republicans, which clearly do not make them RINOs

37
posted on 06/17/2013 8:00:11 AM PDT
by Kaslin
(He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)

"Susan Colins, is and has always been a RINO... John McCain and Lindsey vote mostly with the other Republicans, which clearly do not make them RINOs"

Did I use the term 'RINO'? No.

The point is, especially with respect to McCain & Graham, is, look at some of the anti-conservative issues that have their support, like ' comprehensive immigration reform' and feelgood, squishy statements about how nice a guy Obama is. Who cares if they vote with the other Republicans, if the other Republicans are only half a chromosome from being a liberal?

George Wallace’s son, George, III, did become a Republican, but he stopped winning elections some time back. He is usually known as “George, Jr.,” but the George Wallace people recognize was really George Wallace, Jr. Presidential candidate Wallace remained Democrat; he said there wasn’t “a dime’s worth of difference between the two major parties.” He was a JFK supporter in 1960 too.

41
posted on 06/17/2013 12:18:25 PM PDT
by Theodore R.
("Hey, the American people must all be crazy out there!")

Treen and Freeman were at odds throughout the Treen administration. Treen backed Mary Landrieu on his own in 2008; some thought she would help a Treen kinsman get a federal judgeship. Treen himself was rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986; never nominated by Reagan after Democrat opposition surfaced.

43
posted on 06/17/2013 12:21:02 PM PDT
by Theodore R.
("Hey, the American people must all be crazy out there!")

A cousin of mine ran for the state legislature in Idaho for The Constitution Party. He lost, but the Democrats didn’t even bother fielding a candidate there. The GOP guy who won decided he’s better become more conservative.

50
posted on 06/17/2013 2:08:17 PM PDT
by Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)

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